AND THE FINISH LINE IS IN SIGHT!

Saturday is the last day to turn in our quilts for the quilt show in April. Believe it or not, I'm STILL trying to get the last three quilts ready. I'm sending down eleven for display - six for judging and five for display only. My lovely sister and her equally lovely children brought the last four to me on Monday. I got two of them done on Tuesday since they only needed rod pockets, but the last two and my owl quilt are still in progress. The owl just needs a label, the other two need labels and rod pockets. Guess what I'll be doing this afternoon. : / It's a good thing I get off work at noon on Fridays. : ) 

 

In the meantime, here are some photos of my Blue Skies quilt that I completed last year. I bragged about getting it finished, but never showed any final photos of it.

 

 

 

Back - I was fortunate enough to find this matching fabric on the discount table at a quilt shop a couple of hours from my home. It's from the same line, but I had never seen it any of the shops closer to me. It was a fantastic bargain at $4/yard, so I bought enough for the entire back. Lucky me!

 

Close up of front pattern. This pattern is from the 501 Rotary Cut Blocks book by Judy Hopkins. I used the same pattern, but alternated the sky blue and the print just for fun.

Last photo - Ready to turn in after its defurring. All quilts must be defurred before entry in case the judge, hangers, or members of the general public are allergic to cats, dogs, etc. I used a really great mitt that I bought at PetSmart. It's for removing fur from furniture, and it works wonderfully!

 

So why don't I have all of my entries completely finished yet? Weeeelllll... I find sewing on rod pockets and labels very boring. And I have lots of UFOs that I need to work on, but I couldn't justify finishing another project when I still have three quilts waiting on binding. More hand work. : (

 

Soooooo... Yes. I did the unthinkable. I started a new project. After all of that hand sewing, I needed to cut something! I needed to choose fabric, and iron it, and measure it, and cut beautiful slices out of it. Something that didn't require hand sewing. : / Something creative! : )

 

In my defense, this is the new Stashbusters pattern that we are supposed to work on for April. I really liked the simple pattern, so I decided to tackle this one.

 

 

 Here are a few of my fabrics sliced and ready for cutting into 1 3/4"  squares, 3" squares, and 1 3/4" by 3" rectangles.

 



Stacks of squares and rectangles cut and ready to sew. You can see a few of the units sewn together already.

 



A couple of my competed blocks. Each fabric makes two blocks - one with a light center and one with a dark. The two above are both light centers.

 

 Here is a completed quilt top as shown by Sager Creek Quilt and Yarnworks when we got our patterns last month. I'm really looking forward to seeing how mine turns out. I have quite a bit more done now since I've worked on it again several more times this week. It's going to be hard to focus on rod pockets with this project beckoning me from my sewing machine.

 

And finally, my gratuitous kitty photos. Enjoy your heater while it's still cool enough to have it on, babies. Soon spring will turn into summer and the heater will return to the storage shed.

  

 

One little kitty...

 Two little kitties...

Three little kitties say "So long! Have a great day!"

 

 

Actually, they're just saying, "Zzzzzzzz...," but I'm saying, "Have a nice day!" I'm off for Spring Break this coming week. Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Deb